Cuturally Nomadic

motionsensorsoundtrack:

How Songs are Born

The Motion Sensor Soundtrack Soundblog

I started this tumblr a year ago to keep a record of my song writing and recording. I am as indie as they get. As in independent. I’m a  dude with a job from 9-5 who comes home and tries to pull out some pleasant sounding truth and make songs about it. I do this in a simple way. An acoustic guitar (sometimes  piano) and my voice. I record it on a $79 digital voice recorder, straight to MP3

I always though it would be interesting to track the progress of an album being made. To hear the very first inspiration for a song and then track the progress. see how the lyrics get written and altered  along the way,and see how a band might shape them. Ultimately I will to have a professional quality album completed (we are starting this weekend) and for sale and in places like i tunes. This tumblr would have basically a sound filled timeline of how it got to there.

I am doing this some, but i realized I am jumping some stages and not being as discriptive as I should be. Not su. re I am really conveying how the songs are being formedChances are none of you will care much, but it might be nice for me to look back a few years from now and hear the first cut of a song and then the story of what I was doign the day i wrote it. Who inspired it, my mood, what I was into at that particular moment, who I was talking to, what other music i was listening to, what was in the media…you get the idea.

So tonight is something i don’t do usually. its literally the first little spark of a song.  I was jsut playing around and found a couple fo interesting chords I liked. Often when i discover something like this, i instantly start heaaring a melody in my head. It almost feels like the song is just sitting there begging to be brought to life. So with a little effot and repitition, you start to pull out the meolody. I suspect a lot of songs are written this way. Some of mine are…some I write the lyrics first though

So, the spark. No words yet, but a melody. and a qucik change. sometimes i will play and hum like I am here. After a while humming morphs a bit into something kind of like speaking in tounges. They kind of sound like words, but aren’t

From there I start to form the words. The sound of the music, the mood, the speed and rhythm, always influences what words come forth from the speaking in tongues stuff. Often i play with this for a while and get one good line. Often that is the first line. A good first line can make a song. It can set forth everything. I really don’t try to write the lyrics. They jsut seem to come, the good ones anyway. When you do it right I think they are pretty effortless. The music and you can have a sybiotic relationship.

So the first stages. This is actually kind of embarassing, but I might appreciate it one day. No more time tonight though. Going to see Gary Jules. If you’ve never heard him, I recommend checking him out.

hi. i know i don’t really say much in the vein of thoughtfulness on here, but i really appreciate you posting this. it’s so personal. i feel so privileged to be able to hear a song before it really is one. what’s presented as music nowadays seems to lack integrity and soul to me, and that’s because what’s presented is really just the ghost of a what the song really was at it’s inception. it’s been processed and reworked and overthought to the point of commercialization, and it’s not what the artist meant it to be.

furthermore, being able to actually hear the progression of a song from chords and melody to an actual finished piece really adds to it. it’s like everyone else can now have that personal connection to the song. there can be this communal understanding and appreciation for what the song really is.

thank you so much for doing this. i look forward to hearing it’s journey and what it becomes.